Saturday, March 28, 2009

#46 - Danny Gladden

I never think of Gladden as a "Danny," always a "Dan." I also think of him as a Twin and looking like this. Whoever created that had a pretty funny idea. (It's supposed to be George Brett sprinting out of the dugout during the pine tar game.)

It's a pretty boring card so I'll get right to his career. After getting out to a blazing start as a rookie, hitting .351 over 342 ABs, Gladden settled into his role as a light-hitting, defensive-minded, stolen base threat. He never did much with the bat, but was a big part of the Twins' World Series wins in '87 and '91, scoring the winning run in game 7 against the Braves in '91.

Checking out his Wikipedia page, there's a good piece of trivia. Gladden was one of 7 Twins on the team for both World Series teams. Who can name the other 6? Without looking of course.

Puckett, Hrbek, Gagne, Gene Larkin, and then I draw a blank. Gaetti wasn't there, anymore. Viola went to the Mets before that '91 series. Reardon was done, Laudner was done, Brunansky was done. It's gotta be pitchers or bench players. I'm thinking bench players. Gene Kelly had a solid bench that seemed to stick with him through those 2 titles. Who else was there? Randy Bush, Al Newman, Roy Smalley? I think no to Smalley because I'm pretty sure he was out of baseball, but the other two might have still been around. I think Bush was, for sure, but I don't recall if Newman was. I'll have to check out the wiki page after posting to see how I did. If I'm anywhere near right, I am probably showing my age. :P

'87 Topps

Welcome to the '87 Topps blog, a card-by-card look at my first and favorite baseball card set. I'll be scanning in each card and commenting on, well, whatever I feel like. The photo, the stats, any weird memories of the player I have, etc. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you haven't seen it, check out the definitive card-by-card blog here.-BloggerDK